NEW DELHI: Punjab Kings captain Shreyas Iyer left everyone stunned with a remarkable display of athleticism on the boundary ropes, eliciting shocked reactions not only from the fans but also from the Mumbai Indians dugout, where Rohit Sharma and Suryakumar Yadav were seen looking on in disbelief.
The moment came in the 18th over during the IPL 2026 clash between Mumbai Indians and Punjab Kings at the Wankhede Stadium on Thursday, when Hardik Pandya smashed Marco Jansen at long-on.
What followed was pure athletic brilliance. Running quickly to his left, Iyer tracked the ball perfectly near the boundary rope. Realizing that he was about to lose his balance and step to the side, he improvised in the air, catching the ball with an inverted cup and, while in the air, throwing it back into the game.
Xavier Bartlett, stationed nearby, completed the capture safely. While Bartlett’s name made it into the scorebook, the effort was entirely Iyer’s creation.
After the impressive effort, Iyer celebrated in style.
After Punjab Kings’ seven-wicket win, Ian Bishop asked Iyer: “At one point, Mumbai were looking for 200-plus, what was the key to getting things back.”
Iyer didn’t mince his words and said, “I think my catch (laughs).”
Prabhsimran Singh and Iyer reached fifties fluently as Punjab Kings continued their winning streak with a resounding seven-wicket victory over Mumbai Indians, who slumped to a fourth consecutive defeat in IPL 2026.
Chasing 196, Punjab Kings reached 198/3 with 21 balls to spare, as the Mumbai Indians bowlers collectively struggled, with AM Ghazanfar’s 2/31 being the only notable effort.
“Confident and optimistic about the future. We have been playing phenomenal. We know that every match is important, it is a collective effort, we are happy to have a complete victory. Prabhsimran has raised his bar, considering the last season, where he swung wild, got runs and got great starts. Now he has maturity and finishes games. He is maturing with every game,” Iyer said after the match.
“My catch was the key to turn things back (laughs), but we tend to do that. We did it even against SRH. We have to be present and enjoy the moment. We haven’t decided how to set the totals, we are lucky to have won draws so far. We have a lot of positive players ready to come out and express themselves. You need to keep improving every game, focus on yourselves and that is the recipe we have been following. I have seen the crowd coming in numbers, the fan following is increasing. It’s great to see the fans showering their love,” he said.
Punjab Kings will take on Lucknow Super Giants on April 19.